Dr Sam’s PAS vs Hadi’s PAS: Which one will Malaysians get? – Terence Fernandez

THERE is a worrying contradiction emerging within PAS.

On one side stands the likes of vice-president and Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr
Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, who understands that Malaysia is not a mosque, a temple, a tokong, a
church or a gurdwara – it is all of them.

On the other is the party president and former Terengganu Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Hadi
Awang. We will come to him in a bit.

Speaking at a multi-faith gathering in Shah Alam last Sunday, Dr Ahmad Samsuri – popularly
referred to as Dr Sam – stressed that Malaysia was not built by one race or one faith.

He called for a nationhood that embraces all races and religions.

That is not merely clever political positioning. For PAS, it is necessary political evolution.
Because if PAS wants to govern Malaysia it has to persuade Chinese, Indians, Christians,
Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and others that their Malaysia will not become somebody else’s
Malaysia.

Dr Sam, the British tertiary-educated aerospace engineer understand this.

He acknowledged that governing this multiracial country requires balancing Islamic ideals
with constitutional realities and the interests of citizens from different backgrounds.

But then there is the other PAS. The PAS of Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang. And this is where the problem begins.

While Dr Sam is trying to sell a PAS that can embrace Malaysia’s diversity, Hadi – the Islamic
scholar educated in Madinah and Cairo – continues to speak in a language that divides
Malaysians along religious and racial lines.

His latest comments on corruption are a case in point.

Following the release of the Royal Commission of Inquiry report into Tabung Haji, Hadi argued
that Muslims were less prone to corruption because of their faith and suggested that nonMuslims involved in economic activity formed a significant proportion of those giving bribes or
acting as intermediaries.

As usual he offered no statistics for this claim. That is particularly unfortunate because the
Tabung Haji RCI report is not a morality play about Muslims versus non-Muslims.

It is a governance report! The RCI found weaknesses in governance,
political interference and identified shortcomings in the legal framework governing
Tabung Haji. In other words, the problem is not whether the wrongdoer prays five times a day, goes to church on Sunday, lights joss sticks or celebrates Vaisakhi.

The problem is corruption. A scourge that does not discriminate among faiths.

A corrupt Muslim is still corrupt.
A corrupt Buddhist is still corrupt.
A corrupt Hindu is still corrupt.
A corrupt Christian is still corrupt.
A corrupt Sikh is still corrupt.

This is precisely why Hadi’s argument is troubling. It takes an institutional problem and turns it into
an identity problem.

He is more interested in spreading the narrative of who is more corrupt than the other, instead of
what allowed the corruption to happen.

By Hadi’s narrative, we are no longer fighting corruption. We are fighting each other.
Hadi has form here. In 2022, he claimed that nonMuslims and non-Bumiputera constituted the
bulk of the roots of corruption.

So Malaysians are entitled to ask a very simple question:

Which PAS are we going to get if PAS takes Putrajaya? The PAS represented by Dr Sam?
Or the PAS represented by Tok Guru Hadi Awang?

Because they represent two very different visions of Malaysia.

Dr Sam’s challenge is that he is trying to move PAS towards the centre without necessarily
abandoning its Islamic identity.

That is probably the only route by which PAS can convincingly make the leap from being a
powerful Malay-Muslim political force to becoming a government for the whole country.

But there is an elephant — or perhaps a tok guru — in the room.

Hadi is not some irrelevant backbencher. He is PAS president and its spiritual authority.
And after more than two decades at the helm, his influence over the party’s ideological
direction cannot simply be wished away.

The death of PAS Spiritual Leader and Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat
in 2015 saw a Hadi Awang lead PAS that moved more to the right – taking Kedah to add to its
three state haul that includes Kelantan and Terengganu.

Hadi creates a fundamental problem for modern PAS leaders like Dr Sam.

How do you reassure minorities that PAS has changed when the party’s most influential elder
statesman keeps reminding them why they were afraid of PAS in the first place?

Malaysia is obviously not Iran. We have a constitutional monarchy, parliamentary
democracy, a federal system and a unique constitutional arrangement protecting both
Islam and the rights of citizens of other faiths.

But the Iranian lesson is not about copying its political system.

It is about where ultimate ideological authority resides.

Iran demonstrates the danger of having elected political leadership operating alongside a
powerful religious authority whose ideological influence can constrain or override the political
project.

That is the danger PAS must confront. Dr Samsuri can talk about harmony, inclusion
and a Malaysia that accommodates different faiths.

He can reach out to non-Malays through multi faith high teas and twll them that PAS
understands the demographic reality of this country.

But if, at the same time, Hadi continues to frame national problems through a Muslim-versus-non-
Muslim prism, then minorities will naturally ask themselves:

When push comes to shove, who gets to decide? Leaders like Dr Sam — or Ustaz Hadi? – August 23, 2026

Terence Fernandez is Group Editor in Chief of Big Boom Media which publishes Scoop